Malawi Defense Forces applaud US Army support

The Malawi Defense Forces (MDF) has described a joint military training for the MDF and the United States military dubbed Epic Guardian 13 as a golden opportunity to Malawi.

MDF Assistant Public Information Officer Lieutenant Paul Chiphwanya spoke Thursday during a media tour to Malawi Armed Forces College (MAFCO) the United States Africa Command (U.S. AFRICOM) organized.

“The training will help Malawi to assess herself whether she is ready to face emergencies or not,” said Lieutenant Chiphwanya.

According to him, the world is becoming more unpredictable; hence, government must always be ready to rescue its people from any form type of emergency.

“The good part of Epic Guardian 13 is that it is holistic in nature, it will strengthen joint crisis response structures and emergency readiness across the MDF and other Government Departments,” said Lieutenant Chiphwanya.

Public Affairs Officer at Special Operations Command-Africa Major James Rawlinson said the training will help to marry skills of the US and Malawian troops. Epic Guardian 13 is a multi-agency training program.

“It will help us to establish means on how we can work together,” said Major Rawlinson.

The exercise will involve other ministries such as Home Affairs, Information, Transport and Communication, Health and government departments like National Intelligence Bureau, Immigration, Civil Aviation, Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Rehabilitation, Malawi Revenue Authority, Fire and Ambulance Services.

A pre-exercise training started on April 22 2013 and is expected to end on April 30, 2013.

This joint training under Epic Guardian 13 is expected to start from May 1, 2013 to May 17, 2013 and will take place at various military colleges and bases of the MDF across the country.

Malawi is the fourth country to host such an exercise in Africa after Cameroon, Djibouti, and Seychelles.